Marty’s Story

One morning as I was taking a shower I felt a knot on my back. That afternoon, I was told that there was a tumor on my 9th rib.

I never had any pain or discomfort. One morning as I was taking a shower I felt a knot on my back.  I immediately called my family doctor and he suggested I have a CAT scan. That afternoon, I was told that there was a tumor on my 9th rib. At first the doctors here thought it was benign after needle biopsies. Then, during an aborted surgery, the surgeon knew it was something much different, took a larger biopsy, sent it to Mayo, and closed me back up.

Mayo returned the verdict, osteosarcoma, and within two weeks I was on my way to M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where Dr. Wayne L. Hofstetter, a wonderful thoracic surgeon, removed the tumor and two ribs (8th and 9th) on the left side of my body. Dr. Raymond, a pathologist at M. D. Anderson upon receiving Mayo’s diagnosis, questioned if the tumor might not be a periosteal osteosarcoma as a result of the grade. He was correct. Once removed it was determined that it was periosteal osteosarcoma and it had invaded the bone marrow for 7mm. Read more

Ted’s Story

Ewing’s sarcoma at the spine with multiple mets
Age at diagnosis: 42
Date of Diagnosis: June 2004
Location: Florida
Oncologists: Dr. Mayda Arias, Dr. Abdon Medina, Dr. Larry Einhorn
Hospital: Holy Cross Hospital

Diagnosis: My PNET (a form of Ewing’s Sarcoma) was first diagnosed in June, 2004. It arose from morphed teratoma cells from my previous diagnosis of testicular cancer, which I had been diagnosed with in November 1998. While I had been treated for the testicular cancer, having had an orchiectomy in December 1998, follow-up chemo in June 1999, surgery to remove my first teratoma in my neck in November 1999, and three subsequent resections for new teratomas in my chest (9/2001), neck (same spot – 11/2002), and abdomen (6/2003), in late 2003 and early 2004, I started to have some back pain, which I was unable to relieve. I have had a history of back problems, so this didn’t seem to be anything different. Unfortunately, on June 16, 2004, I started to lose some of the feeling in my legs and was admitted to the hospital, where an MRI revealed multiple lesions in my spine, including one pressing against my spinal column. A biopsy revealed a new germ-cell tumor and my original oncologist misdiagnosed it as more of the same testicular cancer. At this point, I contacted Dr. Larry Einhorn at Indiana University, who diagnosed my condition right over the phone (which was totally amazing). A follow up appointment with him in Indianapolis less than a week later confirmed that I did indeed have PNET and apparently this could arise from mutant teratoma cells from testicular cancer. Read more

Tammy’s Story

Chondrosarcoma (Grade 3) at the Lungs
Age at Diagnosis: 33
Date of Diagnosis: 2006
Location: Canada

Diagnosis: I first saw my doctor in the fall of 2005 as I was having pain and a tightness feeling in my chest, back pain, a dry cough, shortness of breath, and a few other minor symptoms. It was thought that I had allergies then asthma then walking pneumonia. I was sent for many tests (X-ray, CT scan, etc.) and through those tests found out that I had a tumor in my right lung. It was 10cm in diameter. Initially it was though to be a non-cancerous weird growth of some type. Read more

Bill’s Story

Chondrosarcoma at the ribs
Age at Diagnosis: 60
Date of Diagnosis: 2004
Location: Australia

Diagnosis, Treatment and Metastases: In 2004 I was diagnosed with a chondrosarcoma on my rib cage that went from the size of a prune to a grapefruit in 6 weeks. They removed the left side of my rib cage and replaced it with a plastic like rib cage. Last year, in November of 2005, I found another 2 chondrosarcomas on my knee and ankle. Due to this I lost my leg and have now had to learn how to walk again. Since then I recently have just had another chondrosarcoma where it originally occurred on my plastic rib cage. Read more